Is Cold Calling Dead? What the Numbers Do and Don't Show

Is cold calling dead? No. Every measured figure we could open shows that people still book meetings by phone. The same figures show a low return on each dial, and the one series that compares two years shows it falling. Whether a call fits your agency depends on having a reason to make it.

What is known about cold calling?

Less than the headlines suggest. Cold calling is phoning a business or a person who has had no contact with you. We found three sets of figures on it that can be read at their source.

Baylor. Over two weeks in November 2011, 50 real estate agents made 6,264 calls to random numbers in areas they had not marketed to before. 28% of the calls were answered, 55% were not and 17% reached non-working numbers. The calls produced 19 appointments and 11 referrals, which the study puts at one appointment for every 330 calls (Keller Center). Its authors asked for more research.

Gong. Gong sells software for analyzing sales calls. It studied 90,380 cold calls and reported a baseline success rate of 1.5% (Gong). The page dates from 2018 and does not define success, though the context is a booked meeting. Its main finding was about wording. Calls that stated the reason for calling did 2.1 times better.

Cognism. Cognism sells contact data. It puts the average success rate at 2.3% in 2025, against 4.82% in 2024 (Cognism). The page gives no sample size for the 2025 figure.

These numbers cannot be lined up as a trend. One counts appointments for each dial, two do not define success on the page, and each studied different callers. They agree on one thing. The average cold call fails far more often than it succeeds, and the highest average any of the three reports is 4.82%.

Does cold calling still work?

Yes, at a low rate for each call. Baylor counted appointments, and both vendor pages report success rates above zero, so the phone still produces meetings.

Whether that rate pays is arithmetic. The Baylor study estimated about 7.5 hours of calling for each appointment or referral. Say one in four of those becomes a client. That is an example, and nobody measured it. Each client then costs 4 times 7.5 hours, which is 30 hours on the phone. Whether 30 hours is a fair price depends on what one client is worth to you.

The direction is less certain. Cognism's figure fell by about half in one year. That is one vendor's series with no sample size for 2025, and one year is a short time.

What is opinion, and whose?

Most of what is written on this question is opinion from someone with something to sell. We read the five pages that ranked for it on November 10, 2026. All five came from companies that sell sales software, sales training or sales services.

The same caution applies to this page. Leadodo sells outreach software. Its sequence opens with a posted letter, and it also has cold calling as a tool of its own. Weigh our view accordingly.

Both camps overreach. "Dead" ignores the meetings in all three sets of figures. "Better than ever" ignores how few dials lead to one.

Is cold calling dead for agencies that sell to local businesses?

No, though nobody has measured it for this case. We found no public study of agencies phoning the owners of local businesses. Baylor studied real estate agents, and the two vendor pages do not say who was called. Anyone who quotes you a success rate for your situation is guessing.

Our reasoning is that a call suits an agency better than it suits most sellers. A local business publishes its number because it wants calls. The owner is often the person who answers. You can also study the thing you sell, the website, before you ring.

Treat all of that as reasoning. None of it is measured.

When does a cold call still fit?

A cold call fits when you have a reason to make it, a short list and a small ask. It stops fitting when any one of the three is missing.

The right-hand column describes most of the cold calling people complain about. That kind deserves its reputation.

What should an agency do before it calls?

Choose the list, then warm the call.

The choice of list is the part we have measured, for email. We scored 20,000 company websites and sent 3,570 emails. Businesses with the weakest 20% of sites replied positively about 3.2 times as often as a random sample of the rest. The full test is in this post. It covered Dutch companies and email only, so it says nothing about calls.

Warming the call is our view on outbound. Your Outbound Machine runs six steps over 19 working days. A posted letter arrives on day 1, emails follow on days 4, 7 and 11, and LinkedIn steps come on days 15 and 19. None of the six steps is a phone call. Leadodo has cold calling as a tool of its own. If you add a call, the letter gives you an honest opening line.

We explain why the letter goes first. Our cold calling scripts show the wording, and our cold calling tips cover the nerves.

How can you find out for yourself?

Run a small test and count the results. We estimate it takes two weeks and 100 businesses.

1. Pick 100 local businesses with weak websites, all in one trade.
2. Post a letter to 50 of them. Send the other 50 nothing.
3. A week later, call all 100. Use the same opening, apart from the mention of the letter.
4. Log every dial as no answer, front desk, conversation or meeting.
5. Compare the meetings from each group of 50.

With 50 in each group, the result is a hint and falls short of proof. It is still your own number, from your own town. No vendor page can give you that.

Questions

What is the success rate of cold calling?

It depends on what is counted. Baylor's 2011 study found one appointment for every 330 dials. Gong's 2018 analysis reported a 1.5% baseline, and Cognism reports 2.3% for 2025. None of the three studied agencies that call local businesses.

Why do people say cold calling is dead?

For two reasons. Most dials go unanswered, as in the Baylor study, where 28% of calls were picked up. Many of the loudest voices also sell an alternative to the phone. The phrase makes a good headline, and the measurements do not support it.

Is cold calling better than cold email?

We could not open a study that compares the two on the same list. They do different jobs. An email reaches thousands and waits to be read. A call reaches a few and gets an answer now. We suggest using both as steps in one cold outreach plan.

Does cold calling work for web design agencies?

Nobody has published a measurement we could read. The case for it is reasoning. Local owners list their numbers, and an agency can name a real problem on the owner's website. To get your own figure, call 100 local businesses, half of them after a letter, and count the meetings.

How many cold calls does it take to book one meeting?

In the Baylor study it took about 330 dials for one appointment, and about 209 dials for one appointment or referral. Those were real estate agents ringing random numbers in 2011. A short list of businesses you have researched should take fewer, and we have no figure to prove it.

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Next step. If you call, call warm. Your Outbound Machine posts the letter and sends the emails first, so your call has a subject. See the sequence.